Memorial of Thomas Walton Patton
Title
Memorial of Thomas Walton Patton
Description
These annual gatherings of our Church, besides their formal legislative character, are occasions for pleasant associalions and opportunities for cementing frendships and stimulating one another to love and good works. Into the texture of these meetings there are introduced from time to time the threads of sorrow and separation-- a familiar face is missed, and we learn that another "laborer's work is o'er".
To day we miss the presence of Thomas Walton Patton, and, as we recall the story of his life, we feel that a good man has gone to his reward and that the Church which he so dearly loved has lost a faithful servant and those who were privileged to know him a dear friend.
His life was passed during the most momentus years of our national history and his character was nessacerily molded by the influence of those stirring times. Born in the period that we affectionately speak of as the "Old South", he wielded his sword and periled his life for what he esteemed the sacred principles of liberty; and he lived to see the rude scars of war almost completely effaced and a united people occupying the land from the gulf to the great northern lakes.
In our conflict with Spain, at an age when most men would have shrunk from the hardships of army life, Captain Patton eagerly embraced them that he might use is veteran experience for the benefit of the untried youths who volunteered in their country's service.
It was characteristic of the man to thus sympathize with the younger generation and to spend himself in any cause which he believed to be right and just.
In the community in which he live,d his high sense of honor, his unblemished integrity, his enthusiasm for civic righteousness commended him to his fellow citizens as one to whom they could entrust, as they repeatedly did, their most important affairs.
His religious life was marked by a simple earnest piety. He was devoted to the Church and intelligenty apprehended her doctrines and modes of worship, which influenced and directed all the circumstances of his life. He took a prominent part in the organized forms of Church activity and was a wise and helpeful counsellor in the Conventions of the Dioces of North Carolina, and, after its organization in the District of Asheville, which he repeated represented in the General Convention.
His family life was ideal, and his association with his friends full of sweetness. As his life drew towards its close his religious fervor and deep spirituality were thrown into greater relief as of one who was being wrapt more and more into the spirit of the Lord.
Mourning his loss we esteem his many virtues, and "than God for the good example of this his servant, who having finished his course in faith doth now rest from his labors."
To day we miss the presence of Thomas Walton Patton, and, as we recall the story of his life, we feel that a good man has gone to his reward and that the Church which he so dearly loved has lost a faithful servant and those who were privileged to know him a dear friend.
His life was passed during the most momentus years of our national history and his character was nessacerily molded by the influence of those stirring times. Born in the period that we affectionately speak of as the "Old South", he wielded his sword and periled his life for what he esteemed the sacred principles of liberty; and he lived to see the rude scars of war almost completely effaced and a united people occupying the land from the gulf to the great northern lakes.
In our conflict with Spain, at an age when most men would have shrunk from the hardships of army life, Captain Patton eagerly embraced them that he might use is veteran experience for the benefit of the untried youths who volunteered in their country's service.
It was characteristic of the man to thus sympathize with the younger generation and to spend himself in any cause which he believed to be right and just.
In the community in which he live,d his high sense of honor, his unblemished integrity, his enthusiasm for civic righteousness commended him to his fellow citizens as one to whom they could entrust, as they repeatedly did, their most important affairs.
His religious life was marked by a simple earnest piety. He was devoted to the Church and intelligenty apprehended her doctrines and modes of worship, which influenced and directed all the circumstances of his life. He took a prominent part in the organized forms of Church activity and was a wise and helpeful counsellor in the Conventions of the Dioces of North Carolina, and, after its organization in the District of Asheville, which he repeated represented in the General Convention.
His family life was ideal, and his association with his friends full of sweetness. As his life drew towards its close his religious fervor and deep spirituality were thrown into greater relief as of one who was being wrapt more and more into the spirit of the Lord.
Mourning his loss we esteem his many virtues, and "than God for the good example of this his servant, who having finished his course in faith doth now rest from his labors."
Creator
R.R. Swope, J.A. Deal, and R.R. Rawls
Source
James W. Patton Papers, Folder 9
Publisher
All Souls Parish, Asheville
Date
1907
Files
Collection
Citation
R.R. Swope, J.A. Deal, and R.R. Rawls, “Memorial of Thomas Walton Patton,” The North Carolina Experience in the Spanish American War, accessed April 28, 2024, https://csilkenat.omeka.net/items/show/6.